The Business Communications Revolution - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Andy Mattes is a Member of the Group Board of Siemens AG’s Information Communication Networks (ICN) Group. In this capacity he is responsible for ICN’s Enterprise Networks Business Unit’s sales, marketing and manufacturing activities as well as regional responsibilities for Germany and Latin America.

He can be reached at: andy.mattes@siemens.com.

Bob Emmerson is an English national living in the the Netherlands. He holds a degree in electronic engineering and mathematics from London University and now works as a freelance writer, part-time consultant and ‘industry observer’. Bob also writes market reports for the Financial Times and numerous while papers.

He can be reached at: b.emmerson@electic-words.org.

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"By focusing on real-life applications that are currently available (or available in the near future) the authors provide a realistic view of IP communications, looking at how and why enterprises will move to these new solutions. The book shows the value of IP communications and how companies can justify the migration not based on the technology but on how the technology can make companies more productive." BLAIR PLEASANT, President and Principal Analyst, COMMfusion, Santa Rosa, CA

"The book presents a clearly-worded and cogently argued case for not only why but also how communications will revolutionize business in the future. It demonstrates that increasingly the complex world requires an increasingly sophisticated technological response to lower the cost of doing business. Readable and intelligent." MATTHEW MAY, Editor, Communications International

"In the book 21st Century Communications, Andy Mattes and Bob Emmerson peel back the layers of confusion that have been wrapped around the issue of IP telephony over the past several years and lay out a concise view of the applications and solutions that can be enabled by IP communications. The authors further highlight the impact of IP-enabled communications on personal as well as corporate productivity while managing to avoid the sensationalistic hype that has typified any discussion of IP telephony in the past." PAUL STOCKFORD, President and Chief Analyst, Saddletree Research, Arizona

Aus dem Klappentext

The information and communications industry has been long on promises and short on delivery. Managers have not seen the return on investments they expected; they are sceptical about new developments, do not have big capex budgets, but at the same time the need to reduce overhead, boost productivity and improve competitiveness remains. Indeed, in the current economic climate it is particularly acute.

Andy Mattes and Bob Emmerson believe that IP Communications addresses all those issues, even though they appear to be irreconcilable. The business case is compelling, but no revolutionary changes are required. Organizations can migrate at their own pace towards a unified information and communications environment. Investments can be incremental. Legacy investments in PBXs, phones and cabling are protected. In addition, mainstream business processes such as CRM and ERP can be communications enabled. This indicates that IP Communications leverages a core asset: the organization s information and communications infrastructure.

In 21st Century Communications the authors reveal how voice and data infrastructures are converging, enabling communications costs to be dramatically reduced. This all-important initial step is followed by the implementation of real time applications that enable better, smarter ways of working and collaborating. This new environment embraces both wireline and wireless networks and covers all communications media: data, voice and video. It also facilitates the realization of ubiquitous computing and communications.

The new, networked economy is very demanding in its own right. Service expectations are high but delivery is complicated by the economic climate in which businesses currently operate. Thus, there is a Catch 22 situation. Companies that don t deliver will go out of business, but this time around management is not going to rush out and buy new systems. However, despite recent problems in this sector, economic growth will come via advances in and widespread adoption of advanced networking technologies. The all-important difference is the fact that they will be deployed and employed in different ways to those of the recent past.

Important business issues that this book addresses include the dramatic rise in transaction costs and the fact that many point solutions are hitting performance walls because of recent changes in the economic order, which is service centric. Thus, the tasks for which those solutions were designed have changed significantly. These are not problems that can be fixed; instead they require a pragmatic makeover and the development of sound business strategies. This is not an easy task and mistakes will be costly. Moreover this is not something that management should delegate, hence the need for a book that talks the language of business and not that of technology.